So You Want to Double?
People sometimes ask me how I do what I do. How do you play all the brass instruments well? How do you cope with all the different mouthpiece sizes? Do you practice switching?
Though this website is more for instrument archival, the topic of doubling is never far away as I do play all of the instruments I show on the website, so I feel that it’s worth addressing. One day I might write a book about it, but here I’m going to go for short and sweet. Straight to the point, so those interested in expanding their brass horizons can get to it quickly. This is my quick and dirty guide to brass doubling!
I have three main tenets that I apply to every instrument I play:
Do what the horn wants, not what you want. This means that you shouldn’t try to play the instrument like a different instrument. If you try to play a trumpet like you do a trombone, you won’t have a good time, you’ll be working much harder than you need to, and you won’t sound good. You need to meet every instrument where it wants to be met, and learn to work with it. In my opinion, the greatest skill to have as a brass doubler is to be able adjust to how an instrument wants to be played very quickly - ideally, by the first note!
They’re all just brass instruments. Although each type of brass instrument needs a different approach and has a unique set of specializations in the face and in the repertoire, they are all brass instruments and a LOT carries over from horn to horn. If you have a strong, solid embouchure to begin with, you’ll be off to a great start on any brass instrument you pick up. It’s easier than you think!
Everything helps everything. Not only is there a lot that carries over from horn to horn, learning and consistently practicing a new double (the right way) will also help your playing on other brass instruments, including your primary instrument. It’s all connected, and if you’re practicing in a healthy way (not overworking yourself, not falling into any bad habits, etc.) it will all level up together.
Obviously, to become comfortable on a double, you need to practice it. This is doubly true for the instruments the farthest away from your primary instrument. So if you are a trombone or tuba player, trumpet will probably require the most face time to feel comfortable on. As a bass trombonist myself, I usually focus on trumpet or horn in my practice time when I don’t have anything specific to prepare for.
Switching instruments quickly, so you can do so on gigs, is a skill that needs to be practiced like anything else. I get asked sometimes how I can switch instruments so quickly (sometimes as little as a quarter note of time!) and come in feeling and sounding good right away. The simple answer is that I practice switching quickly a lot! It is just another thing that you need to shed in the practice room until you get good at it. What I like to do is pick an Arban exercise (or set of exercises), play it on one instrument, then immediately play it on another instrument, continuing to switch back and forth often to get used to the feeling of going back and forth between those two mouthpieces.
Now, which doubles are the most important to pick up, and when should you do so? Well, in this case “importance” is a loaded word. I personally think you should chase after instruments that you want to play, and that you think would be fun. Deciding to double all the brass for potential financial gain is not really a good strategy, as you have to actually buy all those instruments (and mouthpieces, and mutes, and cases… etc.) and spend many hours practicing them, only to end up without any guarantee of getting any work for it, let alone enough for it to be financially worth it. So I think it’s important to keep brass doubling rooted in personal enjoyment/fulfillment, rather than as an avenue to potential work. (To clarify, I’m specifically talking about unrelated doubles like trumpet and trombone, rather than related doubles that are often called for and expected. Trumpet players picking up flugelhorn and piccolo trumpet are not engaging in the kind of doubling I’m talking about in this paragraph, as those instruments are required of trumpet players in many musical contexts. But of course, learning even those common doubles can be helped by the advice in the rest of this article.)
Having said all that, if you are passionate about brass doubling but don’t have any specific instruments that stick out to you, or you already have a few in your quiver and don’t know where to go next, it can be helpful to have a list of all potential brass instrument doubles based on their practicality. I’ve done my best here to sort every reasonably-acquirable brass instrument by how much potential work there is for that instrument, how easy they are to acquire, and other factors.
Bb trumpet. At the end of the day, the trumpet has the largest volume of work out of any brass instrument. It has an established place in the orchestra, concert band, big band, pop horn sections (e.g. corporate/wedding bands), Afro-Cuban music, mariachi, banda, funk, ska punk, brass quintet and other chamber ensembles, and more. It is everywhere! And a good, middle of the road Bb trumpet like a Bach 37 can not only do all of those things well, but it doesn’t take up a lot of space and can be bought for a reasonable amount of money. If you are a woodwind player and are looking to expand into brass for the first time, I would always recommend starting with trumpet and expanding from there.
Small bore tenor trombone. Trombone work is largely segregated between small and large bore; large bore is generally expected in the orchestra, concert band, and chamber ensembles, while the small bore is expected everywhere else. Big band, pop horns, Afro-Cuban music, funk, ska punk, etc. While classical playing is a big part of being a working trombonist, if you are entering from the outside, small bore is the better place to start. It is also easier to play than a large bore, and will make learning trombone for the first time an easier experience.
Flugelhorn. I put flugelhorn at 3rd because even though it doesn’t have as much unique work as some of the instruments I list later, it is an expected double as a commercial and especially jazz trumpet player, and it is indispensable for working with artists and producers. Flugelhorn has been a desirable sound in R&B, neo-soul, and related music for a long time, especially since Roy Hargrove played flugelhorn all over Voodoo by D’Angelo, and after trumpet and trombone I use my flugelhorn the most in this kind of music. I place a lot of importance on recording with artists and producers as a doubler because it is by far the largest market for a player who plays a bunch of instruments. If you can record an entire pop horn section by yourself, people WILL hire you, and flugelhorn is an essential instrument for that sort of work. It’s also one of the most satisfying brass instruments to play, so even if you don’t get work on it right away, it’ll still bring you lots of joy.
Double French horn. Adding horn to your arsenal after the pop horn section instruments makes sense, because it adds a totally different sound to your arsenal and opens you up to the most new work. If you’re wanting to do recording work for artists and producers, where you add brass to their songs, French horn is a very good thing to know. But horn is also even more present in the orchestra than the trumpet, and it unlocks another dimension in multitracking. Make sure whatever horn you buy is a double horn, though. It may be tempting to buy a single horn because of how much cheaper they are, but for any serious horn work or even just home recording, you really need a good double horn.
Large bore tenor trombone (with F attachment). Large bore tenor is the next logical step, as now you can tap into the rest of the trombone work you can’t access with a small bore. Additionally, having a larger and darker trombone sound is nice for recording, and can work as a stand-in for a bass trombone in a pinch, especially with a bass trombone mouthpiece. I placed large bore tenor above bass because there is more tenor work, and because you can get a good large tenor for a lot cheaper than a good bass trombone.
Bass trombone (2 valves). Having said that, there is still a good amount of bass trombone work out there, and it comes up fairly often when working with artists/producers as well. Being able to add some cinematic low notes to a song is a good ability to have, and of course it’s an amazing thing to have for multitracking. Even though they are a lot more expensive, make sure you buy a bass trombone with 2 valves. Single-valve bass trombones are much less useful than a double, and everything they can do can also be done on a double so there’s really no reason to waste your money on. Save your pennies for a double-valve bass trombone, it will be worth it. I promise!
Tuba (B-flat or C). You might think tuba is too low on this list, but I put it below even bass trombone for a few reasons. First, it takes up a ton of space and is quite expensive to buy even a decent one. (Don’t buy an ugly, dented-up 3-valve school horn, it’s not worth it.) Second and most importantly, there just isn’t that much work for it that isn’t already taken by full-time tuba players. The one big exception is polka season, where there are so many tuba gigs that you are likely to get some polka work if you can play tuba decently well. Polka gigs also tend to pay very well in my experience, which is why I rank tuba as more important than sousaphone. Sure, you could get some street brass band or banda gigs on sousaphone, but you’re not going to make much money doing that and your back is going feel it. Polka pays the bills.
C trumpet. C trumpet is the standard instrument in every American orchestra and in many others around the world. If you get any classical work on trumpet, you should have a C. And it should be a Bach or a Bach-style C (Yamaha Xeno, Shires, Eastman, etc.) as well, as that is the sound that is expected. I have used my C quite a bit over the years, but not nearly as much as any of the instruments above it on this list.
Sackbut. I know what you’re thinking. Sackbut…? Surely there are other instruments more important to pick up than sackbut. But in reality there is a lot of early music work out there, and very few people who play (or even own) a sackbut, so if you buy one and learn it to a good standard, you’re pretty much guaranteed to get work on it. The unfortunate part is that buying a good sackbut (do NOT bother with a cheap one, they are worthless) is very expensive, so this is an entry on the list you can skip if you need to, or you’re just not interested in playing sackbut. I personally find sackbut incredibly rewarding, but many trombonists hate sackbut, and you could be on either side of that fence. If you are interested, I’d recommend trying one first before dropping thousands of dollars on one. I include tenor and bass sackbut here, as they are both called for often. Tenor is needed a little more, and is not quite as expensive as a bass, so it’s the logical choice, but either one will get you work.
Mellophone. Believe it or not, there is some for-hire marching band work out there for mellophone. My mellophone leaves my house quite often! However, I put mellophone at #10 mostly because I believe it is the most underrated brass instrument (outside of a drum corps or HBCU context), and also one of the best additions you can make for multitracking. Having a mellophone section allows a huge amount of flexibility in your writing. The mellophones can function as a second distinct alto section from the French horns, opening up the middle register for way more color variation. But high-register mellophones can also be used as a second distinct soprano section from the trumpets. They can match trumpets’ intensity while still sounding very different, which is a combination that you can’t get from any other instrument. I also think that the more people pick up the mellophone and use it as a serious instrument outside of marching bands, the more work will materialize for it. Additionally, even in the absence of existing mellophone work, I have created many of my own opportunities to use (and get paid to use) the mellophone. From this point on in the list, a lot of these instruments invite you to create your own opportunities, in the face of no existing opportunities. But it’s very rewarding (musically and sometimes financially) to introduce bandleaders, composers, etc. to instruments they’re not familiar with, and many are overjoyed to have a new sound to write for. I have experienced this firsthand the most with the mellophone.
Euphonium. This world is imperfect, and there’s no better evidence of that by how few euphonium gigs there are in the world. Euphonium is a gorgeous-sounding instrument and was my first love (it’s the instrument I started on!), but there just is very little work out there for it as the only ensembles of which it is a standard part are concert band and British brass band. There are of course the military bands throughout the United States, but those positions are all taken by full-time euphonium players. As a doubler, it’s very unlikely you’d ever win one away from those who devote their entire careers to the instrument. The euphonium is easy to play, so the skill ceiling for the instrument is enormously high, and it has the most virtuosic solo repertoire out of any brass instrument. Having said all that, for your own projects (such as multitracks) having a euphonium available is a wonderful thing, and I use euphonium in nearly every multitrack. As a doubler you don’t need to spend many thousands of dollars on a fancy Besson or Willson. I’d recommend either a Chinese Yamaha-copy compensating euphonium (Wessex, Mack Brass, Schiller, etc.), a Yamaha YEP-321, or a King 2280. All of these you can find for well under $1,000 used (sometimes as little as $300 for the YEP-321), and they will serve you well for anything you might want to use euphonium for. I personally use a Schiller compensating euphonium, as it was very cheap and it plays genuinely very well. I’d love to have a nice compensating euphonium again, but for as little as it leaves the house, I can’t really justify it.
Piccolo trumpet. If you get an Easter or Christmas church gig playing trumpet, chances are you’ll have to play the Hallelujah Chorus and possibly a couple other works written for baroque trumpet in D, which are nowadays typically played on piccolo trumpet in A. You could use a D trumpet if you have one and feel adventurous, but for most trumpeters the security of the A piccolo is a safer choice. As a doubler you probably won’t need a piccolo trumpet too many other times, but Easter and Christmas gigs are a worldwide pastime for brass players every year. Aside from church gigs, piccolo trumpet is a useful tool to have for anything else you might want to use it for. If you’ve been going down this list in order, the next-highest brass instrument you own is almost an octave lower, so there is plenty of room for a piccolo trumpet in your collection. Plus, the cheap ones are serviceable and no piccolo trumpet takes up very much space. Just make sure you get one with four valves (either 4 in a row or 3 + a dependent 4th in the 3rd valve loop), as you will need the extra range for those sounding D3s in the Hallelujah Chorus.
Cornet. Cornet might be the easiest brass instrument to buy, even easier than trumpet. There are a million of ex-school horns out there for dirt cheap, and you can even find very good instruments with that dark British brass band sound for cheap as well. My recommendation is the Yamaha YCR-231/2310. For some reason Yamaha gave the Shepherd’s crook model (YCR-233/2330) the brighter, American style bell and other specs, while they gave the non-crook model (YCR-231/2310) the large bore and the big dark British-style bell. But because the 231/2310 looks like any other worthless old American student cornet, it sells for just as cheap. I have one myself, and it’s a great instrument that I’ve gotten a lot of use out of, with a MUCH more professional brass band cornet sound than my previous cornets. Because they are so plentiful and cheap, I see cornet as an easy purchase decision for the brass doubler. Just make sure you get a proper British-style cornet mouthpiece with it. Denis Wick is the standard, and can also be found very cheap! Obviously if you have a local British brass band near you, you have an easy opportunity to play cornet there, but even if you don’t you can create other opportunities. Small group jazz, concert band and orchestra cornet parts, and multitracks are all good uses for a cornet. I occasionally play mine with a touring ragtime orchestra that requires cornets, not trumpets.
Alto trombone. Alto trombone is not an instrument called for very often, but there is a lot of orchestral repertoire written for it, and if you have one you may be eventually asked to play the Mozart Requiem on it. So there is a small amount of potential work on it, it doesn’t take up a lot of space, and you can get an ok-playing one for very cheap (Thomann TEB-480). Outside of the orchestra, they are written for and used fairly often in trombone choirs, and in my opinion trombone choir alto parts being played on alto is more important than trombone choir contrabass parts being played on contrabass. Alto is another instrument that you can make opportunities for as well, just by owning one. I have played alto trombone in a big band (on request from the bandleader!) and in a funk band. It can happen!
Medium bore tenor trombone (with F attachment). A .525” bore trombone with F attachment is a luxury, but one that a working trombonist can find real use for if they have one. Certain musicals, wedding bands where you have to cover bari sax parts (e.g. Proud Mary) in addition to normal small bore trombone parts, certain street brass band trombone parts that both go below the staff and ask you to imitate a bass trombone while also having tons of high notes, lighter orchestral repertoire on principal, 2nd trombone in an orchestra when the 1st trombone is playing alto, and more. Essentially, nobody NEEDS a medium bore tenor, but if you have one there are times where it is the best trombone for the job. Plus, when multitracking, it gives you yet another color to breathe more life into the trombone section. In my multitracks I often use a .525” instrument on the lower tenor trombone parts, flanked by small bores on the upper parts, bass trombones below, and possibly a large bore tenor on the lowest tenor part.
Bass tuba. An F or E-flat tuba is common as a solo instrument, in British brass bands, and in chamber groups such as brass quintet. It can also be useful sometimes in the orchestra or certain larger brass ensembles. Most of those roles will probably be filled by full-time tuba players, and in contexts where doublers need to play tuba (e.g. bass trombone doubling tuba in a big band or in a musical), usually a small to medium-sized C or B-flat instrument is a better choice. Having said that, having a nimble, sweet-sounding bass tuba is certainly not a bad thing if you have the space for it, and it gives you another voice in the tuba section to work with in multitracks or other projects. Plus, a good bass tuba is fun to play, and feels like a sports car compared to a contrabass tuba.
Oval tenorhorn. Want to play more polka gigs, especially ones where you do more than just play oompahs all day on tuba? Does the band already have a trumpet player and whatever else you play? Get an oval tenorhorn and be the life of the party. As a bonus, a good oval tenorhorn is a wonderful instrument in its own right, with a wonderful singing sound that stands apart from either euphonium or trombone. Having a leaner, brighter, but still tuba-ish voice is a nice thing to have in multitracks, whether it’s a British baritone, marching baritone, or a German tenorhorn. But based on pure practicality, the oval tenorhorn wins because of its utility in polka bands, Balkan brass bands, and Mahler 7.
Bass trumpet. While the amount of euphonium or alto trombone work out there is small, the amount of bass trumpet work out there is smaller. But when you do need a bass trumpet, you really need one, and not too many people own one let alone play it well. So there is absolutely a niche to be filled there. You can also get a decent-playing European bass trumpet (Josef Lidl) for pretty cheap, and have yet another new color for your own recording projects. I’ll admit, my bass trumpet has never left the house, but I know people in town who have been paid to use theirs, so some work IS out there.
Cimbasso. Unless you are an active studio bass trombonist in either Los Angeles or London, or a salaried bass trombonist in a European orchestra, you do not need a contrabass trombone. Therefore, if you have a hankering for extra raucous low notes, you should buy a cimbasso instead. Why? Well first of all, a cimbasso is literally a contrabass valve trombone, and when paired with an appropriate (i.e. not tuba) mouthpiece, it sounds like a trombone as much as any other. Cimbasso is also a much more nimble instrument than contrabass trombone, which is cumbersome at best to play. But most importantly, the cheapest Chinest cimbassi are actually good instruments, which is absolutely not the case with contrabass trombone. You can go buy a brand new Schiller cimbasso right now for less than $2,500 and be set. In contrabass trombone land, if you spend any less than $7k or so, the instrument you get will be mediocre at best to unplayable at worst. Save yourself the hassle and get a cimbasso.
Wagner tuba. Buy a cheap Chinese compensating double Wagner tuba (which plays pretty well), and rest happily knowing that if you get a random call to play 7th horn on Bruckner 8, or a composer or producer wants a sound somewhere in between horn and trombone, you have it covered. Bask in the knowledge that you can put Wagner tuba in your multitracks at any time, and nobody can stop you.
Flugabone. If you are primarily a trumpet or euphonium player and you want a trombone-like instrument that you can play without thinking, flugabone is the answer. It is one of three common forms of valve trombone, the other two being normal valve trombone and trombonium. Flugabone is the best overall because it is by far the most compact and easy to store and travel with (especially if you have a Cronkhite flugabone gig bag!), it is by far the most comfortable to hold and play, and the bell is about as far from you as a trumpet, so you don’t have to move to put the bell at the same distance from a microphone. Perfect for doubling on live gigs, as I have used my flugabone for extensively. You can also play flugabone one handed, which is useful for when you partake in truly elite shenaniganery such as playing flugabone with your right hand and harmonizing with yourself via a MIDI-controlled harmonizer pedal with your left hand, or playing flugabone with your right hand while playing a sick nasty Parliament Funkadelic synth bass line on a Moog with your left hand. Somehow, I speak from experience. Anyway, flugabone is just the most convenient tenor brass instrument there is. Perfect for traveling, touring, playing valve-heavy neo-soul lines underneath flugelhorns, an alternative to slide trombone on crowded stages, as a substitute for bass trumpet in a pinch, and so much more. Just like everyone needs a 303, everyone needs a flugabone.
Eb/D trumpet. The Eb/D trumpet is something nobody really NEEDS, but it’s a useful tool if you do have one, similarly to the medium bore tenor trombone mentioned earlier. Orchestral trumpeters who have good Eb/Ds, especially large-sounding ones that can sound like a C trumpet, find many uses for them. It’s always nice to have more security in difficult high passages, without needing to resort to the small sound of a piccolo trumpet. And in multitracks, it’s always nice to have more keys of trumpet to add more shades of color to the mix.
Alto horn. You really only need an alto horn if you want to play it in a local British brass band and they don’t have an instrument for you to use, or if you play in a Mexican banda. In British brass band circles they call it a tenor horn, while in banda they call it a charcheta. A good alto horn is great fun, but there is no call for one outside of those two ensembles. For home recording/multitrack purposes, it allows you to bring more British brass band-style middle band writing into your arrangements, especially when combined with flugelhorn and baritone horn. In my arrangements I prefer to rely on the horn and mellophone sections as the two primary alto voices, but the brass band voices (cornet, flugelhorn, alto horn, baritone horn) are nice to have around to fill textures, provide a blanket underneath other material, and occasionally have their moment in the spotlight.
British baritone horn. I love having a baritone horn around, and I use it almost as frequently as euphonium in my multitracks. It blends perfectly with euphonium, but can also do its own thing or blend with middle voices (mellophones, alto horns, flugelhorns, even trombones). I usually find that I would rather have a baritone and a euphonium part instead of two euphonium parts. That said, you REALLY don’t need a British baritone horn unless you want to play in a local British brass band. Otherwise, owning a British baritone is definitely a luxury, but it’s really nice to have! I have also used it on a couple of recording sessions for bandleaders who wanted exactly that sound, so you could theoretically get a bit of work on it. But generally, you should buy one of these because you want to use it in your own projects. For that purpose, I highly recommend them!
Contrabass trombone. As I mentioned earlier, the only people who actually need a contrabass trombone are studio bass trombonists in Los Angeles or London, or bass trombonists in European orchestras. Everybody else would be better off with a cimbasso, or just sticking to bass trombone. That said, if you really want a contra and have the space and money for it, they ARE very cool instruments that can be the crown jewel of a brass collection. Just whatever you do, don’t settle for a cheap Chinese contra, or worse, any Bb contra. They are universally awful and not worth your money. If you truly want a contra, you’re going to want to pony up the huge amounts of money necessary for a proper German (or British, in the case of the Rath R90) contra. I can’t say I recommend it as it really doesn’t make any financial sense, but the heart wants what the heart wants.
Everything after the above 25 is just gravy, to buy exclusively because you want one and/or you find an amazing deal on one. High F or G trumpets, alto trumpet, low F trumpet, G bugles of all types, soprano trombone, piccolo trombone, Kaiserbariton, oval althorn, natural horn, C cornet, corno da tirarsi, superbone, trombonium, descant horn, Vienna horn, Vienna tuba, EVI, G bass trombone, double bell euphonium, echo cornet, flumpet, contrabass trumpet, alphorn, posthorn, herald trumpets of all sizes, 4-valve flugelhorn, quartertone trumpet, marching French horn, normaphone, jazzophone, antoniophone, columbiaphone, cornophone, alto valve trombone, corno da caccia, marching alto, Aida trumpet, holztrompete, beer hall bass trumpet, soprano cornet, soprano flugelhorn, alto flugelhorn, orpheon, alto cornet, bass flugelhorn, double bell trumpet, pocket trumpet, sudrophone, bass saxhorn, parforce horn, Chaussier horn, cornetão gatilho, Swedish cornet, Russian horns, helicon, sopranino trombone, natural trumpet, baroque slide trumpet, trombone in C, alto trombone in F, American baritone horn (don’t), frumpet (super don’t), ophicleide, cornetto, serpent, carnyx, buccin, bukkehorn, cornu, lur, and so on.
